TIME Magazine reminds us that a picture (or is the new catch-phrase du jour “optics”?) really is worth a thousand words.
Unfortunately for TIME, not many of the words have been good, after the magazine released a promo blurb via Facebook about Pink Floyd’s upcoming album, “The Endless River.”
The photo TIME used was a picture of Roger Waters. While Waters will always be associated with Pink Floyd, he has not been a member of the band since the early 1980s.
What’s more, Endless River is a tribute to Floyd keyboardist, Richard Wright, who died several years ago due to cancer. The songs on the album were co-authored by Wright and band members David Gilmour and Nick Mason. Wright plays on the album.
Pink Floyd fans immediately took to Facebook to criticize TIME for the flub – a sample of some of the comments are posted below.
The link on Facebook had generated more than 47,000 “likes” and over 6,000 shares, as well as close to 1,000 comments. That is more than 150 times the number of “likes” the average TIME post and 10 times more than next highest post over the last several days. The post also has been shared 5 times more often than the next highest post, and more than 60 times the rate of the average TIME post.
The mistake is a reminder to companies about the importance of connecting all elements of their content production, and the need to maintain high levels of quality control. TIME, which has seen its overall viewership decline dramatically over the years, needs to capitalize on every opportunity it can get to grow its audience and recapture its appeal as a news source.
TIME used to be associated with high quality – both in terms of imagery and its news stories. Unfortunately, they missed on a simple story that could have driven a significant amount positive engagement.
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